Allentown job fair draws big, diverse crowd

Job seekers walk on the concourse at Coca-Cola Park Wednesday. The Morning… (DONNA FISHER, THE MORNING…)

May 09, 2012|By Sam Kennedy, Of The Morning Call

They came in suits. They came in shorts.

On display at the fifth annual The Morning Call/CareerBuilder's Career Fair at Coca-Cola Park on Wednesday was the occasional necktie. More common was dress-down attire: baseball caps, sneakers, sandals and at least one leather vest, as well as T-shirts displaying an assortment of arm and neck tattoos.

The job seekers, numbering several thousand, were as diverse as the nearly 60 employers on hand. Represented were companies from the service industry, finance, health care, warehousing and manufacturing.

Katherine Walter of King of Prussia, looking sharp in a black pants suit, waited in line to speak to recruiters for Lutron of Coopersberg.

En route to earning bachelor's degree in business administration, Walter was an intern for Macy's in Taiwan. She learned to speak Chinese. She used to look for work in marketing, which is what she studied in school, but has lowered her expectations after repeated rejection.

"It's getting frustrating," she said, smiling nonetheless.

In recent months, the Lehigh Valley's job market has been sufficiently stable to provide a certain amount of security to those fortunate enough to have a job. However, it has offered relatively little opportunity to the unemployed.

The region's unemployment rate dropped to 7.9 percent in March from 8.1 percent in February, according to the state Department of Labor and Industry. But the drop was due to a shrinking labor force, not an increase in employment, which is little changed. The workforce shrinks when discouraged job seekers stop looking for work and fall off the unemployment rolls.

Thirty-six months have passed since David Helfrich, an electrical engineer, lost his job as a contractor for a pharmaceutical company. The 59-year-old Bethlehem resident distributed his resume to several recruiters at the job fair.

The challenge for him, he said, is to convince would-be employers to hire him into a junior position despite his wealth of experience as a project manager. The more time that goes by without work, the further he reduces the salary he tells employers he hopes to earn.

Helfrich belongs to a support group for unemployed professionals. Once or twice a week, someone from the group lands a job and stops showing up to meetings. He's waiting for his turn.

"But it's taking a long time," he said.

Companies at the job fair included some of the Valley's biggest employers, such as Lehigh University, KidsPeace and Wegmans. Also present were a variety of retailers, such as Burger King and Jack Williams Tire Co., which have a much smaller presence in the region.

Diana Hill, a recruiter for Jack Williams, described the job fair as a success. By lunch, she had spoken to more than 50 people and identified several strong job candidates, she said.